Not directly related to hiking but I still think it belongs here. Because, paradoxically, one of the most threatening things about hiking in Georgia is reaching the actual mountains. Many Georgian drivers rely way too much on the saints on their dashboards - they drive fast and overtake other cars at blind turns or over hilltops. Together with bad state of many roads and the widespread alcohol consumption, these are the main causes of road accidents in Georgia.

Most of the time, you will reach your destination safely and you can entertain your friends with stories how your taxi overtook the ambulance on lights and sirens. Or how it was, to sit on the front seat of marshrutka rushing on the narrow road at the 70 mph, narrowly passing lying cows and then noticing that your driver didn´t even hold the wheel since he has to readjust his sunglasses, play with his chest hair or do something equally important.

Unfortunately, not all these rides have a happy ending. According to the statistics, a risk of gettings into the car accident is about twice as high compared to European countries, a little higher than in the USA and much lower than most of the Asian countries.

OK, but right now you are probably asking - what can be done to minimize the risk? That depends on the type of transport you are using. If you have a private driver or use a shared taxi, you should be fine. Just tell him to slow down and be vehement enough. He may grumble and the mood may be spoiled, but that´s still much better option than to risk an accident.

If you are using a marshrutka, there is not much you can do. There are no seatbelts and you can´t bribe the driver (but you can try :)), so you can pray that nothing bad happens. So, even after reading the whole article, you didn´t get any meaningful advice - but at least you know what to expect :)